The Islamic State terrorist group has executed 250 girls and some of their families in Mosul, Iraq because they refused to become sex slaves to some of its fighters.
According to a local media outlet, after overtaking Mosul in June of 2014, ISIS militants began selecting women and girls, forcing them into "temporary marriages." However, hundreds of women refused to comply with the fighter's demands, and were subsequently executed, along with their families.
"At least 250 girls have so far been executed by the IS for refusing to accept the practice of sexual jihad, and sometimes the families of the girls were also executed for rejecting to submit to IS's request," Kurdish Democratic Party spokesman Said Mamuzini told London-based Kurdish news agency 'AhlulBayt.'
Another official from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) party Ghayas Surchi said that human rights were being widely violated in all IS-held territories, particularly the women's rights as they are seen as commodities. Women in such regions are not permitted to go out in public, and have no choice in choosing their spouses.
Over the past two years, thousands of Yazidi and Christian women in the Middle East have experienced extreme brutality at the hands of Islamic State militants, prompting US Secretary of State John Kerry to class such atrocities as "genocide."
Last August, 19 women in Mosul were slaughtered for refusing to have sex with IS fighters. A year prior, up to 500 Yazidi women and girls were kidnapped and sexually abused by the militants, and October, more than 500 Yazidi women and young girls were abducted by the ISIS when they stormed the Sinjar region in northern Iraq.
A New York Times report from August also revealed that ISIS has "emphasized a narrow and selective reading of the Quran and other religious rulings to not only justify violence, but also to elevate and celebrate each sexual assault as spiritually beneficial, even virtuous."
In its English propaganda publication, "Dabiq," ISIS sought to justify its treatment of females, saying it is permissible under early Islamic law to capture and forcibly make "heretical" women sexual slaves.
"Before Shaytan [Satan] reveals his doubts to the weak-minded and weak hearted, one should remember that enslaving the families of the kuffar [infidels] and taking their women as concubines is a firmly established aspect of the Shari'ah that if one were to deny or mock, he would be denying or mocking the verses of the Qur'an and the narration of the Prophet ... and thereby apostatizing from Islam," the publication read.
As earlier reported, over 100 of the Yazidi women who escaped ISIS after their mountain stronghold was attacked in August 2014 recently signed up to fight against the jihadist group.
The women, known as the "Force of Sun Ladies," are officially fighting alongside Kurdish Peshmerga forces, while another 500, ranging in age from 17 to 37, are waiting to be trained.
"Now we are defending ourselves from the evil; we are defending all the minorities in the region," Capt. Khatoon Khider told Fox News. "We will do whatever is asked of us."
"We have a lot of our women in [nearby] Mosul being held as slaves. Their families are waiting for them. We are waiting for them. The liberation might help bring them home," she added.
Mosul, formerly home to thousands of Christians, is Iraq's second-largest city and is considered to be the main stronghold for the terror group in the region.
On Monday, U.S. President Barack Obama said that he expected Mosul to be retaken from ISIS by the end of 2016.
"My expectation is that by the end of the year, we will have created the conditions whereby Mosul will eventually fall."
